just thought i'd post a couple of pix of my christmas present up for you... and for the people who got it for me

funny, my brother got to meet Phil before I did and he's not into rockets at all... anyhow, he organised to get me a Spike for xmas.


half finished... just needs some fillets and a spray



shot of the fin-profile... does it look like 120degs? i thought: not too bad.



decided to paint it gold on a spur-of-the-moment decision... the colour doesn't come out too well in these pix but I might try some more shots later in the sunlight. The gold is really shiny and looks pretty cool!!!

It occurred to me that I could use this "pocket-rocket" for my L1 cert attempt. I've also got the LOX Onyx but the Spike has thru-the-wall fins and so has a greater chance of landing and remaining in one piece.

Looks Kool Mr F. The angles appear ok but hard to tell from a photo.  

Your correct in suggesting about using this rocket for a level 1 cert. When your ready for a cert flight we will have to get you back to Spalding.  

Having a shiny colour as your've chosen is good for high altitude shots and usually makes it easier to see.

Looks great. Can it fly on an H for L1? I'm sure it can handle it, but my Stealth Jr (basically a longer and heavier Spike) goes really fast on a low impulse H, so I think you should expect this one to go a long way.

on a H motor it will hoot   go for it mr f she came up nice thats for sure i new your xmas present for some time and couldnt tell you  

Your fin profile looks fine to me Mr F.

Yeah RockSim reckons it'll go nearly 3000ft on a H97 which will result in a fair drift...

Hmmm instructions suggested adding some weight to the nosecone which I have done. Foolishly, I didn't weigh the nose before and after so I can't tell how much I added! Beginners mistake. The RockSim file has the nosecone mass as 85g would that be right? If so I can weight it now and see how much I've added. The instructions suggested another ounce of weight.

I've read a review on RocketReviews.com suggesting this is pretty important so I want to make sure!

To add weight (bit dodgy) I didnt' have any BB so i went to the driveway and grabbed a bit of gravel. Rolled that around in some 5min epoxy and dropped them through a small hole cut at the shoulder-base of nosecone. Then I mashed a bit of epoxy putty in to make sure. I'm a bit worried about the whole mass detaching on launch and making the rocket unstable... wouldn't that be exciting?

I wanted to get more 5min epoxy right down the nose but the crud is so viscous it's hard to actually get it down where you need it to go. And it doesnt help that the nosecone is so long (not that i'm complaining about that... it looks awesome!)

Quoted from wolflair

on a H motor it will hoot   go for it mr f she came up nice thats for sure i new your xmas present for some time and couldnt tell you  

Haha, yeah I wondered that. Like I said, funny that my brother met you before I did. I was going to head to Dowerin this year with him but he's at the mine that week so it didn't work out. Maybe next year.

Quoted from Mr F

Haha, yeah I wondered that. Like I said, funny that my brother met you before I did. I was going to head to Dowerin this year with him but he's at the mine that week so it didn't work out. Maybe next year.

hey mr f you can stay with me while your in Perth if you want to come to Dowerin you can stay in the presidential suite like Maurice did and we can show the sites in perth like we did maurice lol love those strip joints  


we can sort your transport everthing you need just ask maurice

as for the nose weight gravel is a new one when adding weight to nosecones you can fill the gap up with expanding foam or drill a small hole from one side to the other just above the end of the ballast then place a pin, nail etc through the hole make sure the pin /nail is very much a tight fit in the drilled hole then pour 5 min epoxy into the nosecone and cover the nail /pin with a nice amount of epoxy what this does is once dry the nail /pin holds the ballast in place

and to finish of you just grind the nail /pin heads down on each side level with the nosecone outer surface little bit of putty if needed to cover any scratchs and paint


but you should weigh the ballast and the epoxy together if you have not used to much epoxy you should be right and if the there is alot of epoxy going into the nosecone you will need to place the glued end in some water while it cures as it can get bloody hot i did this with the nose cone on my level 3 rocket boy did it get hot but that was alot of glue

Quoted from wolflair

hey mr f you can stay with me while your in Perth if you want to come to Dowerin you can stay in the presidential suite like Maurice did and we can show the sites in perth like we did maurice lol love those strip joints  


we can sort your transport everthing you need just ask maurice

haha, cheers for the offer Phil, very kind of you.

Yeah, the plan was to take wifey and kiddies(3) to visit my brother in perth during the school holidays and see some rocketry at the same time. If we go this year we will have to go in the 2nd week of the holidays (7 days after Dowerin) to meet up with him.

Still, I'll consider your offer an open ended one and you never know when I might come knocking on your door!!!

another option could be to visit him in another set of holidays that lines up with a different PARC launch day... nothing is decided yet so time will tell.

Hey cheers for the info re: nose ballast. Crap, I wish I'd thought about it before I painted... expanding foam would avoid the need to drill & repaint, I guess, and it would hold in place the ballast that's already up in the nose. Where would I source that sort of gear from??? Not the local supermarket, I'm thinking

EDIT: Ah, something like this, maybe - http://www.selleys.com.au/Selleys-No-More-Big-Gaps/default.aspx it's called Selley's no more big gaps. Dunno how much $